by Barnini Chakraborty, Senior Investigations Reporter
October 4, 2021
-Washington Examiner
Jasmine Hartin , the Canadian socialite at the center of an international manslaughter investigation, called the fatal shooting of her friend, a Belizean police officer, a “terrible accident” and insisted she is not the hard-partying “billionairess” that she’s been portrayed as, according to a new interview.
In an exclusive interview, Jasmine Hartin shares her story in detail with #48Hours correspondent @PeterVanSant for the first time on television.
Join us for more, Saturday at 10/9c. https://t.co/oK9jbIC3Sg
— 48 Hours (@48hours) October 1, 2021
The mother of two, 32, is the daughter-in-law of British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft. She was charged in June with manslaughter by negligence after police found her with blood on her clothing and arms on a dock. Henry Jemmott’s lifeless body was found floating nearby in the water.
Hartin initially claimed Jemmott had been shot by someone from a passing boat but changed her story after authorities told her she would be charged with cocaine possession as well.
She eventually admitted she and Jemmott met up for a night of drinking. They ended up at the pier where she’d given him a shoulder massage and he tried to teach her how to load and unload the magazine and bullets from his service pistol, a Glock 17.
Hartin told CBS’s 48 Hours that she was “trying to get the magazine out” and the “next thing I know, the gun went off.”
When asked if she had her finger around the trigger, Hartin said she didn’t think she had.
“I’d, I’m, I don’t know. I, I, I mean, it was an accident or the gun misfired. But, consciously, did I pull the trigger? No,” she said.
Jemmott’s sister, Cherry, who is also a police officer in Belize, has long accused Hartin of killing her brother “execution-style.” She believes prosecutors went easy on her because of her wealth and proximity to power.
“Jasmine Hartin should be charged with murder, not manslaughter,” she said.
Hartin has dismissed the comments, calling them “ridiculous.”
“I am not a murderer,” she said.
Belizean investigators have not released forensics or other documents in the case against Hartin, nor has a trial date been set.
Hartin’s partner, Andrew Ashcroft, has accused his estranged wife of being addicted to drugs and alcohol in court documents filed as part of a custody battle over their children. In the documents, which were obtained by the Daily Mail, Ashcroft accused Hartin of being unable to take care of their children due to her “immoral” habits, which he alleged included taking illegal and nonprescribed drugs. He also accused her of partying too much and said she was an alcoholic.
“Her main occupation is attending and socializing,” he said when asking for full custody.
